WT20: 'Not good enough' Pakistan lose all hope of making semis

MOHALI: Pakistan may still has an outside chance of qualifying for the semi-final of the ICC World T20, but Pakistan coach Waqar Younis has already lost hope of his team’s progress in the tournament after a shoddy batting display at the PCA Stadium here on Tuesday against New Zealand.

“If you say, we will keep our hopes high, but the way we have been playing we don’t deserve to go through,” said Waqar.

New Zealand players celebrate win over Pakistan in the ICC World T20 match in Mohali on Tuesday. Pic/PTI

Waqar repeated it a number of times in his post-match press conference that his team was “just not good enough” after a 22-run defeat, chasing 181 to win.

“While one must admit that they bowled really well, our batsmen just couldn’t find the boundaries in the middle. We were simply not good enough,” he said.

Pakistan scored 66-0 off the Powerplay overs, but once Sharjeel was dismissed, Pakistan went into a shell. What hurt Pakistan the most was Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad adding only 17 runs in four overs for the third wicket which took the momentum away from Pakistan.

Younis did not hold back blasting Akmal for his comments of not being promoted in the batting order without taking his name though. “If you see, we didn’t move at all from the eighth to the 15th over. Two of our so-called youngsters, upcoming cricketers, they both batted for a good chunk of time in the middle where we thought you would take the game away. We were always in the hope. But yeah couldn’t really finish it.

“If I go into details, there will be a lot of issues… about first-class cricket too. But we will have to start by solving the immediate problems. You have to be able to adjust in T20, you have to be adaptable. Still those who were shouting about not getting to bat in the position they want, this was their perfect opportunity. We were just not good enough. You can cry all you want, you can talk all you want, we are just not good enough. People will have to take a hard look at themselves,” concluded Waqar.